Introduction - Mineral Dust: A Key Player in the Earth System - page 2

laboratory, aircraft, satellite, modelling and theoretical studies. This chapter gives
a short introduction into the topic, placing several recent developments in dust
research into a historical context.

Keywords Overview ￿ History ￿ Chapter ￿ Publications ￿ Observations ￿

Modelling ￿ Field campaigns ￿ Player ￿ Recorder ￿ Environmental change

1.1 Why Study Dust?

Airborne dust, mostly emitted from soils in arid and semi-arid regions, is a key
atmospheric constituent and represents an important natural source of atmospheric
particulate matter. In comparison to soot from natural fires, sulphates from industrial
exhaust, ash from volcanic eruptions and sea salt, dust is the most important aerosol
by mass (Fig. 1.1 ).
Atmospheric dust is considered to be a harmful air pollutant causing respiratory
diseases and infections, and in some regions dust can also contribute to trigger
serious epidemics through carrying pathogens (De Deckker et al. 2008 ), such as
foot-and-mouth disease in the UK (Griffin et al. 2001 ) and meningitis in the Sahel
(Thomson et al. 2006 ). Significant dust events have a substantial economic impact as
reduced visibility can affect air traffic, road transportation and military operations.
The aerial erosion of soils is a major problem in agriculture (McTainsh et al. 1990 ).
Reduced radiation at the surface has an impact on the output from solar power
plants, especially those that rely on direct solar radiation (Schroedter-Homscheidt
et al. 2013 ).
Dust also interacts with continental and maritime ecosystems by being a source
of micronutrients (e.g. Okin et al. 2004 ; Jickells et al. 2005 ; Schulz et al. 2012 ;

Fig. 1.1 NASA's GEOS-5 simulation, showing the four main aerosols: mineral dust from deserts
( red ), sea salt from spray ( blue ), soot and smoke from fires ( green ) and sulphate particles from
fossil fuel combustion and volcanoes ( white ). Source: http://geos5.org